The Cursed

Sean Ellis wrote, directed, and co-produced this gothic horror, along with serving as it's cinematographer. This is 100% the vision of his single creative mind, and I have a tremendous amount of admiration for that, even if not all of it worked for me.

The Cursed is a bizarre, unconventional monster movie. It has a heavy focus on tone and atmosphere with very little regard for establishing mythology. And it's a very refreshing take on the well-worn concept of werewolves.

With this film, Ellis proves himself to be a more than capable director and cinematographer. He crafts a bleak environment in which no one is safe or truly morally just, and he keeps the horrifying creature out of the frame as often as possible so that when the gore does finally come, it's a shocking occurrence.

The visual presentation is far more impressive than the writing, however. Ellis's script certainly isn't bad. It's just overstuffed, biting off a bit more than it can chew. There is an opening sequence that isn't mentioned again until the ending, and even then it feels disconnected from the actual narrative. There is no real reason for it to be here, and it's presence actually takes away from a more ambiguous ending that would have been far creepier.

Additionally, there are quite a lot of characters, and none of them are really fleshed out beyond the positions they hold in society. There is quite a lot going on in this film in its first and final acts, and it could have been streamlined a lot by cutting the fat to make it as lean and suspenseful as the middle portion of this film is.

Still, even with its faults, this is a thoroughly ambitious film that I think really does revitalise the werewolf mythos in a lot of ways, and I really hope that people go and support this film so that we can get more unique visions like this.

I'd rather see unique but flawed movies that allow a creator to have free reign than simple competent movies that don't take risks and feel like studio-approved products.